More than 40 people attended the Vanderbilt Global Surgery Retreat on Saturday, April 9. (photo by Steve Green)

Vanderbilt Global Surgery Website Under the leadership of Kelly McQueen, M.D., MPH, director of Vanderbilt Anesthesia Global Health and Development, more than 40 Vanderbilt community members came together to move the Vanderbilt Global Surgery agenda forward. The retreat was designed to create a collaborative exchange of ideas focused on harmonizing program elements already underway at Vanderbilt, and defining the multidisciplinary effort. Elements include dissemination of in-country education and training opportunities for faculty and students, development of outcomes and evaluation research, and the establishment of a central portal for communication to increase national and international visibility of Vanderbilt as a leader in global surgery.

Currently, more than 60 faculty are working in the realm of global surgery, anesthesia and emergency medicine at Vanderbilt. They are providing surgical care and safe anesthesia, obstetric and emergency medical services at facilities located in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and many of them are providing education and training. Several faculty are also leading research efforts in LMICs, including the ImPACT Africa project lead by Matt McEvoy, M.D. and Mark Newton, M.D., and Trauma Initiatives in Ethiopia and Mozambique lead by Susan Eagle, M.D. and Kelly McQueen, M.D.. According to the landmark 2015 report issued by the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, an estimated 5 billion people — two-thirds of the world’s population — do not have access to safe surgery due to a lack of infrastructure, trained surgeons and anesthesiologists, and funding. As presented in the report, the resolve to improve this condition is motivated by both humanitarian and economic reasons. The formation of the Vanderbilt Global Surgery Initiative comes in anticipation of the Global Surgery Era, 2015-2030. As a follow up to the Lancet report, BMJ Global Health recently published a roadmap to expand access to surgical care. Vanderbilt professor, John Tarpley, M.D. is one of the co-authors. The paper entitled, Global Surgery 2013: a roadmap for high income country actors, provides actionable recommendations for academia, the private and public sector, and the media. Through engagement with these interdisciplinary groups, a path to safe surgical care and treatment can be achieved for those who need it the most.